Using collective buying power almost 25 times greater than the initial goal, the Big Petrol Switch has delivered an even bigger saving than hoped for.

The Mercury can today reveal the winning offer is from BP – and is the first fuel discount deal not contingent on the purchase of nappies in a supermarket, a credit card or bottled water in a service station.

Among the Tasmanian beneficiaries will be Austins Ferry’s Roger Wolfe, 71, who said that as a pensioner living on $800 a fortnight he needed every advantage he could get.

Mr Wolfe had to give up his Central Highlands shack last year because rising fuel costs meant he could no longer afford to drive there.

He would love to do more travelling around Tasmania but the fuel bill for his 1993 Hilux ute made that impossible, he said. But discounted petrol should enable him to spread his wings a little bit further, possibly through an occasional extra trip into town.

As a new type of discount, the Big Petrol Switch campaign has intensified competitive pressure in the $40 billion Australian fuel market. The 112,000 people who have thrown their weight behind the Big Petrol Switch including 2200 from Tasmania will soon receive an offer to purchase a prepaid fuel card or cards.

A $50 card will come with a bonus $3 of purchasing power. A $500 card will have an extra $30 on it. The additional value is equal to a discount of 5.5 per cent — or about 8.5 cents per litre. The card is valid for 12 months and can be used to buy any type of fuel or make purchases in-store. Supporters are not obliged to take up the offer.

The initial goal of the campaign — a joint initiative between consumer movement One Big Switch, the Mercury’s moneysaverHQ and sister papers around the country — was to bring together consumers interested in buying a collective $1 million of discounted prepaid fuel cards.

But almost $25 million of combined buying might has been amassed in the month since the campaign launched.

With that extraordinary leverage, the offer extracted from BP has exceeded the original discount target of 5 per cent.